Faith, Fun and Family

“New Song” – Mummy Meditation Week 3

Welcome to Mummy Meditation Week 3! If you missed last weeks ponderings about “longing” then do catch up, as it was a good one. This week I have been thinking over the following verse, and my thoughts are below. Join in with your own comments at the bottom….“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” Psalm 40:3Music – what is it about music that makes it so emotive?! Why do some songs get your heart beat racing, some get your feet tapping, others bring you to tears and some just bore you to death? Who can explain why a certain song will stick in your head for weeks and then every time you hear it after that it brings back memories of that time?Music is powerful, it’s emotive and it’s a key way that we show our worship and adoration to God. It’s not the only way (worship is a lifestyle of praising God through everything we do), but I don’t think there is any way that we can deny the place of music and songs in our worship of God. Last week our church had a huge shock and the congregation as a whole was grieving. Our worship team led us in a song that we have done a few times before, but in many ways it was a “new song” as it took on a whole different meaning.

When tragedy strikes we can be all too quick to shrink inside ourselves and ignore God. But that’s not what David the psalmist did. He would come to God and God would put a new song in his mouth. One that verbalised a little bit of how he was feeling but that also praised God throughout it all. That is powerful stuff. Do you find that a particular song etches itself on your heart sometimes? Or that in a difficult time a particular worship song becomes your anthem that you hold on to to keep going? I remember when we had moved house for my husband to train at Bible College. He started in September, but I decided the right thing to do would be to stay in my old job in the midlands until I found a new one in Yorkshire. I traveled up every Friday night to stay the weekend then back down again to the midlands on Sunday afternoon from September until December when I found a new job. It was tough being apart but our new church in Yorkshire had just started to sing “never once” by Matt Redman:

This song became the anthem of that time, as I tried to remind myself that God had never let me down or left me before so he wouldn’t this time either. It reminded me that part of the joy is in the journey, the struggles and the scars along the way.The most important thing that I have taken away from the verse this week though is what the whole point of this “new song” is. It is not to make us feel better or for God’s benefit. It is for those who are watching. Those who are around us in our lives. It is so that they can see how we respond and marvel at the mystery of our faith. It is so that they can want what we have and “abandon themselves to God”. Wow. So keep going, sing your new song and let God give you new songs to sing, but just make sure you are singing them where people can see you and praise God with you.Do share your thoughts on this week’s verse below, and here is the verse for next week (I am taking a little break from Psalms for something different!):

“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” Philippians 1:12-14